A Walk in the Happiest Place

by Ruth Ann Angus

San Luis Obispo sits just slightly inland surrounded by some of the seven sisters volcanic plugs, enjoying a mild climate and a happy population. Voted recently as one of the happiest cities, it is also the home of some interesting and historic architecture.

The City of San Luis Obispo's Master List of Historic Resources is four and a half pages long and lists the homes and commercial buildings that are still here for you to see. So put on your walking shoes and spend a Saturday or Sunday taking a stroll around town because I guarantee you, it will surprise you.

We all know the San Luis Obispo Mission is the heart and soul of local history. It was established in 1772 by Fr. Juniperro Serra and is the fifth in the mission chain. Nearby the mission in downtown SLO are many historical commercial buildings. The Sinsheimer Brothers Store on Monterey Street was built in 1874 with the only iron-front façade in the county.

On Palm Street is the Ah Louis Store constructed in 1874. It supplied goods and tools to Chinese laborers who were instrumental in building the railroad tunnels that slide through the mountains west of the Cuesta Grade.

Stroll down Garden Street and you'll pass the 1887 Italianate/Queen Anne home that now serves as the Garden Street Inn Bed & Breakfast. This home was built by German immigrants Morris and Helena Goldtree and was once broken up into eight apartments.

A few blocks down Marsh Street is the First Presbyterian Church built in 1905 and made up entirely of granite quarried from Bishop Peak.

Stretch your legs further and visit the venerable Dallidet Adobe at 1185 Pacific Street. Built in 1853 by Pierre Hyppolite Dallidet, a French Vintner, it is now in the care of the San Luis Obispo Historical Society and is open Friday from 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. and the second Sunday of every month from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M.

A walk down Buchon Street will afford you views of several historical homes. At 743 Buchon is the original Bradbury Sanitarium. It was the first hospital in San Luis Obispo and was started by Doctor Richard Bradbury. It is referred to as an American Four Square in Classic Revival style. The building has a symmetrical appearance and the pattern of the front is repeated at the side entrance. It was this entrance that Dr. Bradbury used to bring in his patients from his surgical suite in the house next door.

That house, at 745 Buchon, was also Doctor and Mrs. Bradbury's home. It was constructed in 1910 and is considered a Neoclassical Row House, homes built next to each other facing the street in a row. The home is a one-story structure and has a distinctive 35-pane front window. Bradbury performed surgery here on his dining room table.

At 714 Buchon is the Myron Angel House. Myron Angel founded California Polytechnic State University and wrote a local history of San Luis Obispo County in 1883. That is the year that his red Victorian home was also built.

Nearby at 654 Buchon Street is the Hansen House, an Italianate Victorian home dating to 1886. It is a single story rectangular home built by Alex Hansen, originally from Sweden and is similar to the Victorian row houses of San Francisco where Hansen lived prior to coming to the Central Coast. Present owners, Richard and Ann Marie Greene have restored and preserved the original quality of this home and have many wonderful period items throughout their home.

Did you know that at one time there were homes of Japanese residents in an area called the Nippon Tract located on Brook Street (off South Higuera). At that time, it was named Eto Street after the family that developed a small commercial center there during the 1920s and 1930s. A hotel, soda bottling company, fish and meat market, barber shop, and some groceries did business here. Some of the dwellings owned by Japanese families still exist and here at the dead end of the block next to the St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church is a small oasis called Eto Park.

In 1942 some 900 persons of Japanese descent living in San Luis Obispo were relocated to concentration camps. After the end of World War II very few returned. At that time Eto Street was renamed Brook Street. In the 1990s an attempt to have the original street name restored was defeated but as a compromise the small park was named Eto Park to honor the Eto family.

It's worth stopping at Eto Park to see the spectacular mural painted on the side of St. Luke's Missionary Baptist Church. The mural was done by Rudy Raidl in 2002 and is a tremendous work.

You can see more of San Luis Obispo history by visiting the San Luis Obispo County Historical Society Museum at 696 Monterey Street. The museum is housed in the original Carnegie Library built in 1905. Granite from Bishop Peak and sandstone from Los Berros, near Arroyo Grande, was used in the construction of this building.

The museum and historical society were housed in the library in 1956 and here they display an extensive collection of area artifacts. It is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.